Saturday, December 29, 2012

Pitch Perfect. . . If you have yet to see this movie please stop what you are doing and drive to your local Target and purchase it immediately; it really is in your best interest to do so. It most definitely has made it onto my list of favorite movies; besides being absolutely hilarious it makes me want to have a dance party on the spot. And I love dance parties!!!! So please just watch it!!!

Merry Christmas all. . . I officially suck at consistently blogging, but we all knew that. . . I currently have the post Christmas blues. Everything leading up to Christmas is all excitement and lights and shinnies and then bluh it is all over and there is the craziness of a new year, which is always stressful cause it is just a reminder of what you didn't achieve last year (like blogging)... Plus the last few days I have gotten to spend time with all of my favorite people expect for Erin and now they are all gone so that was a flurry of fun and now it's just me chilling all alone in my childhood room (which is quite cluttered). So that is why I am blue... and I decided the best thing to do would to just write the blues away. I am hoping that this blogging thing will pick up in the next coming months. Since I am heading onto a major adventure. I will be leaving for four months in Costa Rica in just a week. And no I do not speak Spanish. It is definitely going to be an adventure; one I am equal parts extremely excited and horribly terrified for.

I just realized that the majority of the posts (the few of them) that I have put up are photo-less; which is very sad. Because I like pretty pictures as I am sure you do to. So I will just have to take care of that. I am hoping that Costa Rica will yield some pretty pictures!!

Thursday, June 14, 2012

For those of you who have not seen the movie We Bought A Zoo you are truly missing out. It is magical....and so is the music. I have recently become completely obsessed with the soundtrack. Its the sound leaves make when they are blown past you by the wind. And it is the perfect peaceful sound to have in the background while reading or knitting... it's quiet and simple and sometimes you forget it is there and then in the distance you heart it and it makes you smile.

And yes I am listening to it right now.... Give it a try, it might just change your day!!!

Where have I been?? One might wonder. And I wish I could say that I have been traveling off on many adventures; which in some ways I have been but mostly I have been at home lost in my own thoughts. A blog is a funny thing, it is an opportunity to share your thoughts with the world (or with the very few people who are at all interested in the silly happenings of your life), but I find that it comes with great pressure. It is kind of like updating your facebook statues, you go to write something and then wonder to yourself if you really want all of your "friends" to read it (or is that just me?). Anywho.... sometimes I am just not quite sure what to write or how much to write, and by not making a decision I am making a decision, and that is the very reason for my disappearing act. I would promise to do better, but that would be like at the beginning of a semester telling yourself you aren't going to procrastinate, it's just a straight out lie.

Tomorrow my mom and I might wander off to the beach. I really hope we do so, to me the beach is a little bit of God's magic. The sound of the ocean has an amazing way of washing away all of your worries. Even when you are surround by other beach goers its like you are on your own little island where anything is possible, and everything can change at a moment's notice, the clouds can clear and the sun can come out.

P.S.
With regards to my little etsy shop, I did create it, but if you tried to find it there wouldn't be anything for sale. I decided that I wasn't quite prepared to spend all of my summer sewing, event though in one way or another I probably will. Also do you know how many people are selling aprons on etsy, its quite a flooded market. And then there was the fact that there are so many decisions to be made, how much tax you should be charging, shipping and billing methods. To be quite honest I was just to darn overwhelmed. And since I will be moving to DC in the fall and my sewing machine will be remaining on the west coast I figure when I am settled in one place again my etsy shop will still be waiting for me and I will tackle the whole thing once again.

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Last you heard I was wondering around Germany trying to figure out my life (still working in on it, but I have a little better idea of what is next). I returned to sunny CA quite a while ago and I could offer a million excuses as to why I haven't been blogging, but the reality is that I left my blogging inspiration back in Germany and just found it again this week. I have lots of news to share and since I don't want to overwhelm you I am going to try to do it over a few CONSECUTIVE posts (now we all know that this little blog and consecutive posts are not two things that really have seemed to go together in the past, a new year's resolution failed, but I am going to try and do my best, that is really all I can promise, there are no guarantees in this business). So I am going to work backwards in time, updating you from what is happening right now to all of the things you missed up until I was jamming to Some Nights back in Germany. So update number one................[that was a drum roll- this is an interactive blog; I hope that's cool with you] My Etsy shop is actually becoming a reality. I have made a few aprons and I am taking photographs of them tomorrow and I plan to launch the shop tomorrow but by Sunday at the latest. Don't worry once it is ready to go you will be the first to see it! Huzzah

P.S. I don't know if you have noticed yet that I really liked parentheses. To me they are like written secret, something I have quietly whispered to you. So please feel free to read them as so.

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Every once in a while I come across a song, that I really like. And then I listen to it over and over and over and over and over again...... My current obsession is the song Some Night by the band Fun. I don't know why but I just really like it and if you were here you would learn to love it too because both my itunes and ipod seem to be permanently stuck on the same song. I wonder how that happened????

Now for my awkward moment of the week (yes there have been way more than one). On Monday night I was getting ready for bed and I turned off all the lights and then realized I wanted a glass of water. Then came the awkward moment when i couldn't remember if the door was open or close, now rather than turning on the lights (because then my eyes would be temporarily be blinded and who wants that) I went ahead and karate chopped the door. It was open, but I think I could have taken it down with my ubber intense karate moves. I can only imagine how ridiculous I looked.

I spent the past week in Northern Germany visiting Claudia and Dennis' families in Hannover. This is also where both of them grew up and went to University so it was very fun to get to see where there lives started and all the places that hold special memories for them. The first few days we were there were a tiny bit challenging for me just because I was surrounded by all of their family (a large group) and everyone was speaking German, understandably of course. It is a really unnerving feeling to be surrounded by strangers and not understanding a word. But the trip as a whole was a lot of fun.

Here are some pictures from the week:

Dennis and Claudia took all of us kids to this huge indoor play area. It had trampolines and mini soccer fields. Lexi and I spent the majority of our time playing in the ball pin. The benefit of hanging out with a three year old is that no one questions when you are running around in a children's play center.

We played a little scrabble. If you can't understand half of the words that is because it was bilingual scrabble. All of my words are in english, Benni got to use english and German and Claudia had to use German. It was quite an adventure. And actually quite tricky. It's hard to make words when you don't understand half of them. But we had a great time and Benni and I teamed up to beat Claudia.

Here we have some ice skating ducks. Didn't know ducks could ice skate now did you??? Yep it's a special talent that only the German ducks have.

We went to this really neat museum called the Pheano. It is part of the VW center (where the cars and head offices are built). It is a technical museum that the boys loved. It had all these interactive things you could play with such as giant marble runs (and I mean giant). Above was this thing that you could climb in, and it probably was meant for small children and not adults, but Claudia and I wanted a picture in it, which resulted in me getting temporarily stuck and barely making it out alive (slight exaggeration). It was quite funny though.

We made it back home to Gaimmersheim in quite a hurry. You see the trains go nice and fast here. Waist no time.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Oh my goodness so much snow!!! It has snowed lightly the past two days and today it has gotten a bit crazy; they are even canceling flights out of Munich. But it is absolutely beautiful!!! On Monday night after the boys went to bed Claudia and Dennis and I went for a short walk around the neighborhood and there just isn't anything more beautiful then seeing a snow covered city glowing in the moonlight.

Today Claudia and I will be heading out on some sort of adventure; we aren't sure what yet, the heavy snow changes are plans a bit. Yesterday we met a friend of Claudia's for breakfast at the Audi forum. And it was delicious. In Ingolstdat Audi has quite a few production lines as well as its big offices and they also have the Forum which contains an area to pick up your new car if you so chose, a movie theater where they show independent type films, a car museum, a fancy restaurant and then a second nicer cafeteria style restaurant. We went to the latter of the two and had an all you can eat buffet style breakfast, that being said neither of us needed lunch we were so full afterwards. But it was so yummy, plus I got to sleep in which was nice. On most mornings I try to wake up and eat breakfast with everyone, which means waking up at 6:15 (which is very early!!! especially when your bed is all warm and the outside world is freezing!!!)

Later today or tomorrow I will post pictures from Max's robot themed birthday party hat we had on Monday!!!!

Friday, February 10, 2012

I have been in Germany for five days now and it has already snowed twice, which is very exciting since it is probably in the 70s at home. Although I will be here for five weeks which is quite a bit of time, the first five days have already gone by so quickly. I feel like before I know my time will be up and I will be on a flight back home to the states.

Why am I in Germany you may ask?? I am here to visit friends who live outside of Munich in a little city near Ingolstadt. I babysat Claudia and Dennis' three boys when they lived in Thousand Oaks during my freshman year at CLU. After that year they moved back home to Germany for Dennis's work. I was lucky enough to spend two weeks with them after study abroad and they invited me back after I graduated. They are such wonderful people and it is so nice to get to see them again. Claudia and I have stayed in touch since they left but email and facebook just don't fill the void of a face to face conversation.

So far we have done a few small things such as gone sledding and walking through downtown Ingolstadt. But I am enjoying just blending in to their every day lives. When I go to visit someone, I am there to see them, so I am happy to do just about anything. Although we have do have some fun things planned for the rest of my weeks here including a trip to Hannover to visit Dennis and Claudia's hometown and family.

I haven't gotten a chance to take any pictures yet, but as soon as I do I will do my best to share them with you.

P.S. All of my graduate school applications are in so now it is just a matter of waiting and seeing and maybe in the next two months I will have an idea of where I will be living for the next year or so!!!!

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Typically I am very against New Year’s Resolutions, because they tend to be unrealistic lists of things that you are never going to fulfill. It’s a continuous reminder of failure. But since I have all this free time and I am not quite sure what’s next I thought making a small list of some things I would like to do differently might not be that bad idea. But very importantly a realistic list of some little things that I would like to add to my daily life.

Be Active: This does not mean working out everyday (that has not happen since my basketball career ended). But rather getting up and out and doing things; this might mean a walk, lunch with a friend, or an outing to a garden.

Regularly Blog: Not sure how realistic this is based on my previous project but it is something that I really want to put more effort into.

Etsy: I would like to open and maintain an Etsy shop so I have something to do with my sewing projects. This might be difficult depending on where I end up in the fall but I have a while before that’s an issue.

Be Intent: I am really bad at just doing things with out really thinking about this. Especially regarding watching TV and movies; I love both very dearly but I want to starting spending my time more intently; spend my time doing more than just watching the stories of others lives and actually living mine.

Write more Letters: I think hand written letters are wonderful, I love receiving them and I love sending. I plan to spend 2012 actively supporting the Postal Service through snail mail.

Be at Peace with the Unknown: Right now there are a lot of things in my life that I just don't have answers to do. The future is a bit unknown. Most days I am pretty okay with this, but sometimes it really gets to me. I hope that I will be able to spend less time worrying about it and enjoying the simple everyday moments.

So these aren't any major or drastic changes, just a few small things I would like to focus on. But hopefully they will make for a fun year, because I am fully intent on this be a wonderful year regardless of what happens. Happy New Year!!